Story Highlights

Mark Caza spoke with a good amount of excitement recently despite having to replace more than half of the starters on his Marysville football team, including honorable mention All-State quarterback Josh Smith.

The Vikings may be entering the season with some question marks and inexperience in several positions, but the depth and talent on the roster could make for a successful season.

"These are football kids first, with the exception of a few," Caza said. "And they get it. That's the fun part of it."

Eight starters return for Marysville, six on the defensive side of the ball. But if the offense takes some time to get off the ground with a completely retooled line and brand new skill position players, the defense could keep Marysville in games, led by an experienced defensive line.

Three full-time starters — Brady Beedon, Zach Dunlap and Brett Botzau — and another with starting experience from a year ago — Ryan Higgins — are back to lead the team along with middle linebacker Jeremy Berger, also a returning starter.

"We're big up front," Caza said. "Our two inside tackles (Dunlap and Botzau) along with Higgins are going to spell each other, and those are our three strongest guys on the team. Through the middle, we're going to be pretty solid, and Brady's pass rushing on the outside with Berger's leadership behind them, we're going to be pretty solid."

Caza added that he's "never had more depth at linebacker than I do now" as Dan Bell, Josh Holaway, Weston Weglarz and Calvin Moeller all could see time at the position.

"We've got a lot of kids that all look the same who can do different things," Caza said.

While there may be some inexperience there, playing behind that defensive line should help make up for it.

"It will improve me a lot, too," Berger said. "It might make me look good. Most of the credit goes to them filling up the holes and allowing me to be free. Everything I do is because of the people in front of me."

Ta'J Rhodes is the lone returning starter in the defensive backfield as a strong safety. Alex Mugridge will play free safety for the Vikings, while Austin Paterson will be one of the cornerbacks. Austin Thompson, Deshaun Kelley and Evan Brown will also see time in the secondary.

The main question during camp was who would replace Smith, and there was a good competition between junior Travis Disser and sophomore Phill Griffor. Disser was hurt this past Thursday, however, and will miss some time.

"Travis is a dropback passer," Caza said. "He already knows how to run the offense and he hides the ball well. Phill is that athletic-type kid that you've seen be our quarterback the last six years. Travis definitely has a leg up on him because he has that experience, and just that confidence about him right now.

"The offense will be the same (no matter the quarterback), just the play-calling will change a little bit. We're going with a lot of three-back sets right now, but if you add the quarterback as that fourth runner, that's dangerous. Travis can do that, but Phill can go left to right a lot faster than Travis can. Travis is like a (St. Clair graduate Jared Tobey) type size. If he's going to fall, he's going to fall forward."

Griffor will be joined in the backfield by a new set of skill players. Sophomore Dante Chrcek and junior transfer Ryan Ellul have emerged as the top candidates at fullback, while a slew of players will handle duties as the other backs, including Brandon Barber, Thompson, Kelley, Berger, Mugridge and Rhodes.

Tyler Berdan started at tight end a year ago, but is likely to move inside to one of the tackle positions, strengthening an inexperienced offensive line. Lee Ernst is the lone offensive line returner, and will play left guard. Caza said Derek Braun is being eyed as the left tackle and Moeller as a center. Austin Keeley, Jake Woodward and Issac Kish will also figure into the mix. With Berdan moving to tackle, junior Kyle Cook will take his place at tight end, with Beedon also seeing some time there.

That line won't have much time to gel, as the Vikings open the season with Richmond, Port Huron Northern and Marine City, the latter two Macomb Area Conference Gold Division games.

"The last two years, the big matchups came in Week 5 and 6, and we never really had a big gut check until then," Beedon said. "Right off the bat, we're going to know the identity of this team. If this team can hit the ground running, hopefully we can do some special things.

"We can't wait until Week 3 or 4 to get everything together. We have to figure it out in the next week and a half, if not, Richmond is going to run us off the field."

Contact Paul Costanzo at (810) 989-6251 or pcostanzo@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @PaulCostanzo.